CREDITABLE CHANGES: Dao Heng Bank Group has issued new measures in line with Hong Kong Monetary Authority proposals aimed at improving business practices in relation to credit card services.

It announced yesterday it had adopted five main measures including immediate dispute resolution, which will see the bank cancel a disputed expenditure item straight away before investigating it, and lost card total protection, which ensures that cardholders are free of liability for unauthorised transactions. The responsibility of card holders will also be incorporated into application forms and supplementary card holders will be held liable only for their own transactions if principal card holders fail to settle their debts. The bank will also limit the cost of taking action to recover outstanding debts to 30 per cent of the total debt. 'We support the guidelines listed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority,' said Sunny Cheung Yiu-tong (pictured), Dao Heng general manager of consumer banking. However, the key HKMA suggestion - quoting an annualised percentage rate of interest to allow consumers to compare the costs of different cards - remains unresolved. Mr Cheung said it was a complicated matter that had to be discussed with the HKMA and other banks.